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May 21

Narrative Writing for Health Care Professionals: Upcoming CE Events

We’re pleased to announce two upcoming continuing education events for nurses who are interested in writing reflective narratives. Both events are co-sponsored by the Center for Health, Media & Policy and Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, Continuing Education, and are open to all nurses, nursing faculty, nurse researchers, and nursing students. All are welcome, regardless of prior experience with writing. Joy Jacobson and Jim Stubenrauch, co-founders of CHMP’s program in Narrative Writing for Health Care Professionals, will lead the events. (For more information on the instructors, please visit this page.)

The first event, Narratives of Diversity, is a one-day conference that will focus on issues of diversity and marginalization in nurses’ personal and professional lives, academia, and health care organizations. Participants will gain experience in using reflective writing as a way of processing emotionally charged events to reduce stress and burnout. We will also explore strategies for bringing a raised awareness of diversity and marginalization to one’s community, workplace, or school.

Deborah Washington, PhD, RN

Deborah Washington, PhD, RN

The keynote speaker will be Deborah Washington, PhD, RN, director of diversity for patient care services at Massachusetts General Hospital and a clinical instructor at the MGH Institute School of Nursing. In an interview, Dr. Washington said, “The advantage of working with a diverse workforce is that you work with people who understand specific cultures, beliefs, and attitudes. This translates into better patient care and a greater sense of satisfaction from patients and families with that care.”

The second event, Telling Stories, Discovering Voice: A Writing Weekend for Nurses, is a three-day retreat that will engage participants in an intensive process of reflective writing. We will use creative techniques to sharpen and enliven personal and professional writing, and through group feedback and discussion, participants will gain a new appreciation of the power of their own voices and new tools for sustaining a writing practice. The keynote speaker will be Karen Roush, MSN, RN, clinical managing editor at the American Journal of Nursing and founder of The Scholar’s Voice, through which she mentors writers in the health sciences.

SAVE THE DATES!

Narratives of Diversity will be held on Tuesday, June 25, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
in the Faculty Dining Room at Hunter College (68th Street Campus)
695 Park Avenue, New York City.
Contact hours: 7
Fee: $150 before June 1st; $165 after June 1st; Students (with valid ID) $99
Group discount: $125/person available for groups of 6 or more from one institution.
Registration: By phone: 212.650.3850
On the Web: https://ceweb.hunter.cuny.edu/cers/CourseBrowse.aspx
Enter course code: NARDIV

Telling Stories, Discovering Voice: A Writing Weekend for Nurses will be held
Friday through Sunday, July 19-21 (Fri. 8:00-6:30; Sat. 8:00-5:00; Sun. 8:30-2:30)
at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing (Brookdale Campus)
425 E. 25th Street, New York City
Contact hours: 16.5
Fees and registration information to be announced.

May 21

Rain or Shine, It’s Health Promotion Time: The Lower East Side Girls Club Walk-A-Thon

Hunter College graduate and undergraduate nursing students Jing Shin, Tina Munzu, Darren Panicali and others at the Lower East Side Girls Club Walk-a-thon

Hunter College graduate and undergraduate nursing students Jing Shin, Tina Munzu, Darren Panicali and others at the Lower East Side Girls Club Walk-a-thon

This is a guest post by Darren Panicali, an undergraduate nursing student and the President of the Hunter-Bellevue chapter of the National Student Nurses Association (NSNA). Darren is also the Community Health Director of the Nursing Students’ Association of New York State (NSANYS).

On Saturday, May 11, 2013, a team of undergraduate and graduate Hunter-Bellevue nursing students participated in the Lower East Side Girls Club Walk-A-Thon. The rain might have brought the walk festivities indoors, but it sure didn’t rain on anyone’s parade! A vibrant health fair speckled with pink balloons, polka-dot ribbons and the smiles of dozens of tiara-donning princesses took place instead — all in celebration of the more than $37,000 in donations received by the club. The money will go towards health and nutrition programs for girls living in the historically underserved communities of the Lower East Side. Through the efforts of students, faculty, and administrators, the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing was able to proudly contribute over $1,100 to that sum.

But the nursing school did not stop there. Through a tabling initiative aptly called “Rethink Your Snack & Drink,” Hunter’s team of nursing students demonstrated how much sugar is in popular beverages and drew attention to how many questionable ingredients are in foods that seem tasty and harmless. The princesses in pink were certainly not the only ones learning. One by one, people of all ages, genders and backgrounds expressed their shock at the massive amounts of sugar in their favorite drinks and the mysterious ingredient lists for various treats. Even other tablers were baffled as they visited.

With rising rates of obesity, its co-morbidities and ER visits, it is becoming more and more important for healthcare to take up a stronger place in the community setting. By the end of the fair, it became clear to the nursing students that simple educational interventions can make a huge impact on the members of local communities, especially those at high risk for health disparities. Though their activities constituted a small step towards better health outcomes in the Lower East Side, the nursing students will carry the energy of their impact with them as they continue to address community health issues, until health equity one day becomes a reality for all.

Darren Panicali

May 20

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Not Enough Staff for the Art of Care

This is a guest post by Amanda Anderson, RN, BSN, CCRN, a native-Buffalonian-turned-New-Yorker, is celebrating her 6th Birthday as a MICU nurse this June. She’s currently shooting for two master’s degrees from Hunter Bellevue’s award-winning nursing school, writing with students and for herself, and dodging yellow cabs while speeding around the city on her little bike. Follow her musings here, via @12hourRN, and on her blog www.thisnursewonders.wordpress.com.

Amanda Anderson, RN, BSN CCRN

Amanda Anderson, RN, BSN CCRN

At work, sometimes I get the opportunity to change lives. Other times, I work to change deaths.

Mrs. T was dying when I walked into her life. Imminently. A 7-week aggressive course of acute cancer treatment left her body riddled with side effects and complications from a long list of interventions that never promised to cure. Everyone on the unit knew her painful stay and her family’s tireless desire to “do everything.”

During my first night as her nurse, she breathed for herself and maintained stable vital signs. Her handsome husband and loving children calmly willed her to improve. She opened her eyes to their loving voices.

I spent the first evening talking with them congenially. I learned she was a great cook and that she held her religious beliefs close to her heart. Photos of grandchildren, stories of first dates; I felt like a 12-hour member of their family.

That night, I didn’t broach the topic that I knew would become important to discuss very soon – a reality I saw the second I laid eyes on Mrs. T – that she was dying, and that we needed to decide how to manage the progression of her dying process. I had no right to start this conversation that night; it would have only lead to broken trust. Minutes prior, I was just another New York stranger.

After her family left for much-needed sleep, Mrs. T rested peacefully. But as the night turned to day, her conditioned worsened. By morning, she needed medications to sustain her blood pressure, and she labored to breathe. My trained eye saw that her death was approaching quickly, the pace of her journey accelerating toward its inevitable end.

I’ve seen this slope countless times. Some of my patients travel its path with the aid of comfort and love, leaving quietly. Many others are painfully pinned to the world by families wishing to stop death’s progression, adding lines and tubes to ward off that which can’t be cured.

As I gave report to the day shift nurse, we wondered about Mrs. T’s family. Which way would they swing? She’d likely not last the day. On my bike ride home, I prayed that my little lady and her family would come to a peaceful place while I slept.

When I returned a short 12 hours later, I was surprised to see her there in the bed. Still breathing unsupported, Mrs. T’s process had progressed during the day, along with the team’s attempts to slow it. In report, I learned that her family was still asking for aggressive care.

In the ICU, you quickly learn to prioritize based on skilled assessment of impending disaster. That night, I knew my first and most urgent task was a conversation with Mrs. T’s family. I ensured that my second patient was comfortable and stable, charted my 20:00 vitals to prove I was present, put on some lipstick, and took a deep breath.

In the room, I found the whole family. Called to Mrs. T’s side early in the day, I soon learned they felt emotionally exhausted from the team’s attempts at strong-arming them into transitioning to comfort care. Only their oncologist had sustained hope, adding yet another medication. They were still in it. They still wanted to fight. Read more

May 18

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4000+ Global Nurses in Melbourne to focus on equity & access to health care

CHMP Co-directors, Diana Mason and Barbara Glickstein, are attending the International Council of Nurses 25th Quadrennial Congress 18-23 May 2013 in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to reporting on the proceedings they will be participating on a panel titled, The Strategic Use of Media to Shape Health Policy, where they will discuss the work of the Center for Health Media and Policy.

photo of ICN media room

We’ve arrived. It was quite a journey from NYC to LA to Melbourne. We left on Wednesday and arrived on Friday. Thursday just disappeared.  Closest thing to space travel.

The ICN Media Centre will be our base with media folks from around the world here to report on the Congress. When I asked at the media desk check-in what hashtag we should use for the Congress I was disappointed to find out that  one had not been assigned.  A few tweets using #ICN13 followed by a search on Twitter found three hashtags circulating- #ICN13, #ICN2013, #ICNAust2013.  Oh well, it’s a step forward. Four years ago in South Africa only a couple of us were on Twitter. Progress. Slow, but progress.

Student Power

ICN Student plenary The first session I attended was the Nursing Student Assembly.  Student presenters addressed issues on education, technology, access to care in rural areas and advancing the practice of nursing. I was particularly moved by the students interest in developing more clinical placements in rural areas to address the lack of access to primary care in regions locally and globally. One student reported repeated requests at her university to expand clinical placements in rural areas only to be met with resistance. Her response. She created an independent health promotion elective and forged ahead. Other students followed. The message repeated throughout this session is that student nurses are powerful  individually and collectively and are making a difference. They encouraged each other not to wait until you finish your degree and get your license but to make an impact now to address health disparities and inequity.

These student nurses are smart, bold nurse activists. They are nurse leaders with a serious commitment to address equity and access to health care.

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Barbara Glickstein reporting from ICN 2013 Melbourne, Australia

May 16

Mental Health Paradigm

This is a guest post by Alicia Smith an independent writer from Blacksburg, SC. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in health and medical journalism at the University of Georgia. She received a BA in English from Limestone College in Gaffney, SC in 2012. 

Alicia Smith

Alicia Smith

When Dr. Cheryl Gagne was a teenager, she romanticized people with mental illness as charismatic outsiders.

“My image of mental illness was largely positive,” she told a room full of healthcare journalists at a recent conference in Boston. “They were on the margin of society because of their brilliance.”

This view was shaken when she learned from news reports that Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon of the Beatles, had a history of delusions, obsessions, and substance abuse. Gagne was 19 at the time, and the idea that a mentally ill person could be so violent came as a total shock.

A few weeks later, Gagne, then a graduate student in biomedical research, flunked out of school and became a patient herself after being admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to her battle with drugs and alcohol, she told members of the Association of Healthcare Journalists during the conference. Read more

May 15

ACOs: Accountable for What?

Read more

May 15

ACOs: Accountable for What?

My latest blog post for JAMA News Forum answers this question: http://wp.me/p13lz7-2Eu

May 15

Human Trafficking and the Modern-day Abolitionist Movement

This is a guest post by Abby Lishon. She is currently a litigation associate at a large law firm in New York.  She will be starting a PhD program in Criminology this fall and will be conducting her research on sex trafficking in Amsterdam.

walk-across-the-sun-cover

It was the middle of the workday on May 7th, but I couldn’t resist attending the New York City Bar’s luncheon featuring Corban Addison, the author of A Walk Across the Sun.  Mr. Addison’s background appealed to me: he left law firm life to research and write about the human trafficking epidemic.  I’m about to do the same.

The audience hung on Mr. Addison’s every word as he vividly described his inspiration, his experiences witnessing trafficking firsthand in Mumbai, and the state of the anti-trafficking movement.  After watching the film, Trade, with his wife, Mr. Addison felt compelled to take action against trafficking.  However, he was unsure of what he could do.  A short time later, his wife suggested he write a book to raise awareness about the issue.  After leaving the security of his partnership-track law firm position behind and immersing himself in the world of modern-day slavery for six months, Mr. Addison penned a novel based on the real-life tragedies of young girls trafficked for commercial sex in India. Read more

May 15

More than a “technical” error: sending the wrong message

David M. Keepnews, PhD, JD, RN, FAAN, a CHMP Senior Fellow, is an Associate Professor at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing and the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. He is Editor of Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice, a journal focusing on nursing and health policy.

Riding the subway home recently, I noticed a Spanish-language ad placed by the New York City Department of Education (DOE). The ad, part of an effort to promote the new Common Core Learning Standards and exams being given to 3rd to 8th graders, bore a headline reading (in translation) “Higher standards. Different tests. It’s a new day.”

It ended with: “Deseamos prepararlos para la unversidad y las carreras técnicas”—“We want to prepare them [students] for college and technical careers.”

A few days later, I noticed an English-language ad headlined “This Spring, we’re aiming higher.” As I read it, I saw that despite the different headline, this was the English-language version of the ad I had read before. The text was largely identical to the Spanish-language version. However, I couldn’t help but notice that the last sentence was a little different:

“We want them prepared for college and a career.” Note: Not specifically a technical career—simply a career, in general.

This seemingly small discrepancy jarred me: The ads end with two different messages to two different audiences—English-speaking and Spanish-speaking families—about the futures they can anticipate for their children. Read more

May 14

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Angelina Jolie, Tough Choices, and the Rest of Us

By now, you probably know of actress Angelina Jolie’s choice to undergo preventive double mastectomy, and her must-read op-ed in Monday’s New York Times.

In her specific case, the decision was a tough, but logical one given that the benefits of the procedure dramatically reduced future risk of breast cancer. It’s never an easy decision to undergo surgery. It must have been even more difficult for someone like Jolie, whose income is partly tied to her looks.English: Angelina Jolie at the Cannes film fes...

Double mastectomy isn’t the answer for everyone. Jolie was at very high risk because she is among the small percentage of women who carry the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 gene mutation.

As Jolie points out, genetic testing is expensive, currently not covered by all insurance plans, and therefore only viable for a small segment of the population. “The cost of testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2, at more than $3,000 in the United States, remains an obstacle for many women.” There are other forms of breast cancer – which may be more difficult to detect and treat.

What are the choices for those women who do not have the resources for such gene testing? Disparities along racial, education, and socioeconomic lines in both incidence and screening are well documented. Women who have other risk factors, who are without access to the top oncologists, plastic surgeons, and other care providers need to know their choices. Read more

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